Little Foxes

By Lillian Hellman

This probably was the first design after I returned from my MFA. I pulled out all the stops, like an idiot, and nearly killed myself building it. The show was OK, and I think it looked mostly like this. There was a visible room through the arch. The killer was putting up the cornice fragment. And the bridge behind the archway wall for stair entrances.

This is SO 70s as I look at it now. I became fascinated with cornices for a couple of decades, responding to what I was seeing in American Set Design and Contemporary Stage Design USA. Many of my designs show projecting cornices and wall fragments. It's almost a trademark, but not by conscious choice. It was part of my attempt to develop a language around fragmenting that didn't look like Godzilla got hungry. I still preach about terminating walls and the edges of realism.